Thursday, July 24, 2014

This is the start of a discussion on the 2nd amendment that I was assigned for my Humanities class:

I am a big fan of the 2nd amendment to the
Constitution of the United States of America.I am a supporter of the Constitution itself (http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm
), with the exception of the 16th amendment which I do follow but
also strongly believe should be repealed.I have spent a lot of time studying the Constitution and the founders writings
including, but not limited to, the Federalist Papers (http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/federalist-papers
), the Anti-FederalistPapers(http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/anti-federalist-papers
), and James Madison’s notes from the convention (http://nhccs.org/Mnotes.html ).Contrary to the claims of many the 2nd
amendment is not about hunting, it is about defense:defense of self; defense of family; defense
of community; defense of country.In all
of the history of mankind there have only been two outcomes from disarming the
populace:1) innocent people are
slaughtered wholesale; 2) the populace is enslaved by government.These are the only two outcomes from
disarmament and, as such, are the only two possible motivations for
disarmament.Anyone that is trying to
disarm the people is either: a) trying to get millions of innocent people
killed, or b) trying to enslave the people.

Another fallacy is that gun free zones make people
safer.The Gun Free School Zones Act was passed in 1990 originally as part of
the Crime Control Act of 1990 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act_of_1990
) and the results have been predictably disastrous.Just a brief look at mass shootings since
1999(http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mass-shootings-central-american-history-article-1.1457514
) shows that there were 30 mass shootings of which 7 were in schools and 11
were in other “Gun Free Zones” (churches, government buildings and private
facilities clearly marked as Gun Free Zones).There is no mention of intended mass shootings that were thwarted by an
armed private citizen.Gun Free Zones
were clearly created to get innocent people killed (http://www.guns.com/2014/05/21/are-gun-free-zones-really-murder-magnets-video/
).From the near orgasmic responses of
Senator Diane Feinstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the bulk of the news media
after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, it is quite clear that this is
true.These “progressives” spun
themselves like whirling dervishes into a frothing frenzy counting the dead
bodies, celebrating the perpetrator, and exploiting the victims and their
families.The media response was even more
revolting than the slaughter of those innocent children, if you can imagine
that being possible.

One completely misguided argument I often hear is that the
founders had no way of imagining modern firearms.This may be true from the straight technology
standpoint, but only in the same sense they could not imagine computers,
vaccinations, antibiotics, or the light bulb.In the founder’s day private citizens owned cannons and there were some
multi-barrel gun carriages that could fire as rapidly as any modern sporting
rifle.In the Revolutionary War the
assault rifle of choice was the Brown Bess (http://footguards.tripod.com/01ABOUT/01_weapons/01_WpBess.htm
), which was not actually a “rifle” per-se because it was a smoothbore (like a
shotgun) and had no rifling in the barrel.Hunting rifles of the day were 32 to 50 caliber (.32” to .50” ball) with
rifled barrels, mostly leaning to the smaller size, and took 2 minutes or so to
load per shot.The Brown Bess is a 75
caliber (.75” ball) musket that could be loaded 2, 3 or more times per minute
in the hands of a skilled shooter.This
is a fourfold increase in rate of fire with a ball that weighs 2 to 4 times as
much as the hunting rifle projectile.These things were devastating in battle and every male between the age
of 18 and 60 was expected to either have one or access to one.The founders had certainly seen the
improvements of many machines and the older ones had seen the introduction of the
Brown Bess as an improvement over its predecessor, so they certainly
anticipated great improvements to firearms in the future, even if they didn’t
know exactly what those improvements would be.

I am an avid shooter, a firearms instructor, a range safety
officer, and a gunsmith.I haven’t
hunted since I was 18 although I fully support those who do, I just find it to
be a pain in the posterior and have better things to do with my time.As an engineer I am fascinated by firearms for
the machines they are.I also recognize
that as machines they have no soul and no will of their own.They are tools that can be used for good,
evil or no moral purpose at all, as in the case of target shooting.How the tool is used entirely up to the
person wielding the tool and what their intent is.In one of the killings in the above listed
article a hammer was used to kill and in two others knives were used as
well.It is entirely up to the person as
to what they will do with any given implement.

While I oppose virtually all gun control legislation, I am
all in favor of the National Instant Check System (NICS) that was instituted as
part of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban
).This is the “background check” system
that is used when private citizens purchase firearms from licensed
dealers.We do have a serious problem
with mental health in this country and I would like that information to be
included in the NICS system.There is a
provision for it, but it is optional and many states simply do not submit the
information.There is a large call for
this check to be expanded to all gun sales, but in order for that to actually
be functional would require gun registration.That worked out oh so well for Germany in the 1930’s now didn’t it.Any information the government has will be
misused for political purposes, look no further than the NSA (http://www.dailypolicyjournal.com/quick-summary-of-the-nsa-scandals-so-far/
) and IRS (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/irs-scandal/
) scandals for proof.I would however
like to see the NICS system to be opened up so private citizens could
optionally use the system when they sell a firearm, although I’m not certain
how to make that work and still protect privacy.I personally have only sold 4 firearms and I
sold them to people I knew and knew were of no danger to anyone.

I am in favor of expanding the number of people that are
legally carrying concealed pistols.I
also believe that this responsibility requires some training on an ongoing
basis.There is no such thing as too
much training and I consider it to be the responsible thing to do.I personally legally carry a pistol wherever
it is not prohibited and I make it a point to get at least one professional
training class per year, sometimes more, as part of my obligation of concealed
carry.I also teach classes for this
purpose.

Some people claim that the 2nd amendment is old,
outdated and no longer relevant.Many of
those same people say the same thing about the entire Constitution.I disagree.I believe the 2nd amendment, and the entire Constitution for
that matter, is as relevant, if not more, than the day the Constitution and the
Bill of Rights were ratified.

Sam opened
the box to reveal the eagles to the new captain with a big smile.

The new
captain looked down to the box and smiled.He looked back up to Sam “Thank you Ma’am!” and then looked to Tim “Sir!”

Tim took one
of the eagles out of the box, pulled the oak cluster from the new captain’s
left collar and punched the eagle into that collar.Sam took the other oak cluster from the new
captain’s right collar and replaced it with the other eagle.Simultaneously Tim and Sam punched down on
the eagles to press them into the captain’s uniform and make sure he knew the
responsibilities he now had.

Tim and Sam
both saluted the new captain.

“Congratulations
Captain.” Tim stated with a smile.

“Take care
of your station and your crew.” Sam looked directly at him.

“I will
indeed, Ma’am.” He looked to Tim “Sir.”

“Very Well.”
Tim released his salute. “We need to get going.”

“And don’t
tell the Reykjavik quite yet.” Sam winked at Captain Johnson “We have a
surprise for them too.”

“Yes Ma’am.”
He was still processing his promotion. He turned around to his staff “Ok
people, let’s get this station back to operational status.”

Tim and Sam
entered the Reykjavik from the airlock in their space suits dragging their bags
with them.The yeoman led them to their
quarters without checking much else.The
pair just trudged along to the compartment and went in.They stowed their bags quickly and climbed
out of their space suits.They checked
each other and squared their uniforms, and then exited the compartment.The yeoman froze a moment since she had no
idea they were admirals “Admiral … s.” She muttered hesitantly.

“Yes yeoman.”
Tim tried to sound reassuring.

“Don’t
worry,” Sam chimed in “We don’t bite.” She smiled.

“We need to
go to the bridge.” Tim looked at the stunned yeoman.

“Of course,”
she slowly got back to business “right this way Sir, Ma’am.” She turned and
launched down the zero G passageway.Tim
and Sam followed her to the bridge and stopped at the airlock.

“We can take
it from here yeoman.” Sam grabbed the airlock handle “You’re dismissed.”

“Yes Ma’am,
Sir.” She spun around and drifted back down the passageway as Tim and Sam
entered the airlock.

They scanned
the bridge as they were entering it, checking the operations and how well the crew
worked together.Gwen and Kim were
talking to Commander Dunst at the navigating station.Gwen looked up and saw Tim and Sam in full
dress uniforms.She announced “Admirals
on deck!” and saluted.Everyone in the
compartment turned to look and saluted.

“As you
were.” Tim announced as they both finished their return salutes.

“Commander
Dunst.” Sam addressed the commander. “This ship is down one captain and will be
for some time.”

“That is not
a workable situation,” Tim added “As you are no doubt aware.”

“Yes Sir, Ma’am.”
The commander responded.

Sam took a
box out of her pocket and opened it to reveal the shiny eagles inside.“Congratulations

Captain,” She smiled “On your promotion and
new command.” She picked up one of the eagles.

“We expect
you will be able to run this ship as tight as Captain Grind did.” He picked up
the other eagle and the two of them removed the oak clusters from the new
captain’s collar, replaced them with the eagles they then punched down just
hard enough that the pin tips just tapped his skin.Some naval traditions will never die.

“We’re going
to need a compartment to work in.” Sam pointed out “But first we need to get
out of these uniforms.”

“Of
course.I’ll get one allocated.” He
turned to his lieutenant “set aside one of the conference rooms with an
observation port on the same side as our unusual cargo.” He turned back to the
admirals “I’ll send you the compartment number to your quarters.You probably want to grab a quick shower on
your way.”

“That we
will.” Sam smiled.

“Gwen, Kim,
we will meet you in there and get our strategy figured out.” Tim looked
slightly serious.

“Yes sir.”
Gwen responded.

“Very well,”
Tim saluted the new captain “Carry on.” Sam saluted as well.They both spun around and left through the
airlock.

As they
drifted down the passage way Sam asked “Do you think they will mind if we take
a little extra time getting there?”

“They are
going to have to.” And they both laughed a little.

The
Reykjavik slowly accelerated away from Albatross station towing the unusual
cargo.The shuttle was towing from the
opposite side to balance the thrust and keep the asteroid clear of the
thrusters of both ships.They headed off
on the 8 month journey to get back to earth quietly in the dark emptiness of
space.

Friday, April 25, 2014

“The orders
and plans are clear and there is no real danger.”Commander Venkataraman tried to reassure
Commander Dunst.

“What do you
mean ‘no real danger’?” He demanded.

“Nothing
happened until we started fiddling with the first one.” She insisted.

“So we are
going to drag this one back home?” He really couldn’t believe what he was being
told.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“It is all
in the detailed orders I just sent you, but basically you hook up the cables to
the ships and guide it back.The experts
will take it from there.” Her tone was almost condescending.

“Alright,
we’ll get rigged up for it.” The commander got back to a professional attitude.
“Who is going to connect things up?”

“Our crew
will take care of it.” Commander Venkataraman checked the progress “They’ll be
hooking things up in about 15 minutes.”

“Alright,
we’ll be ready.” He was a bit uneasy but figured they would handle the
connection “What about the trip back?Do
we have enough data and instructions?”

“The rigging
crew is going back with you, and so are our experts on the subject so you will
be well staffed in case of problems.”

“Is that the
same team that launched the first one through the station?” He sounded a bit
sarcastic.

“The very
ones.” She tried to play with the other commander “At least they know what not
to do.”

“Well then
at least we have that going for us.” He wasn’t very confident. “We’ll contact
back when the ships are rigged.”

“Acknowledged
Reykjavik.Albatross out.”

Sam was back
outside, standing at the very aft end of the shuttle watching the approach to
the Reykjavik.She wasn’t even
completely dry but was thankful for the shower and being able to clean her
space suit.After 6 hours the suits get
pretty rank and she was going to have to spend several more hours in her suit
to get the cargo hooked up for transport back to base.

“Alright
Tim, that looks about right.” She was checking the distances and the
orientation between the ships. “Bring the probe up close to the back of the
Reykjavik so I don’t have to haul the cables too far.”

“Will do.”
He started maneuvering the probe “I’m going to drift the shuttle a little
closer to close the distance you have to travel.”

“I
appreciate it.” She raised the camera and focused on the probe “Don’t get too
close.If you crash it that will make
things difficult.”

“I won’t
crash it.” He was slightly annoyed “I want you back inside as quickly as
possible.”

“Don’t
forget you need to top off the fuel tanks.”

“Oh yeah, I
had almost forgotten” He quickly checked the cable orientations and the
location of fueling connections on the ship.He had to plot carefully to avoid tangling the tow cables and shredding
Sam.

“I’ll get
that done while you are hooking up the tow lines.”

“I thought
you might need the reminder.” She smiled to herself as she launched off the
shuttle toward the probe.“Let’s get
this done and get underway.”

The shuttle
passed the asteroid and the two waved at each other as they set about their
tasks.

“I’ll see
you on the Albatross.” Tim blew a kiss to Sam through the observation port.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

“Reykjavik,
this is Albatross.” Commander Venkataraman called the ship.

“Go ahead,
Albatross” Lieutenant Trace responded.

“We are
preparing to send your captain back to you.”She punched some buttons to send them critical information “You need to
have proper medical facilities available.And you need to have them for our captain too.”

“What do you
mean ‘for your captain too’?” the Lieutenant was a bit confused.

“Both of
them are in medically induced comas.” The station commander quelled her
emotions “And will likely need to be for the trip back to base.” She paused
“You will also need to make accommodations for our captain’s wife and the
admiral.”

“Will do
Albatross.When will they be
transferred?”Lt Trace started calling
up berthing assignments.

“The
captains are being loaded into the transport now, so expect them in 20
minutes.We are still hunting down the
admiral but it should be within the hour.”

“You lost
the admiral?” the lieutenant was confused now.

“You will
understand shortly.” The commander jested.

“Lieutenant!”
the navigator panicked and shouted “That other one is moving!”

“What?” the
lieutenant looked at the monitor “Put it on the big screen!” he activated the
radio “Commander, take a look at that thing.”

“Will do
Reykjavik, Albatross out.” The commander almost lost her cool.

Sam entered
the shuttle cabin from the airlock and closed the door behind her.She took off her helmet and shook her head
around to free up her hair.

“Help me get
out of this thing.” She announced to Tim “I need a shower!”

“Just a
minute.” He fiddled with his console, plotting the path to the ship. “It sounds
like somebody figured out we’re doing something out here.”

“Alright, just
don’t take too long, I’m itchy!” She was grumpy as she started opening up her
space suit.

“Albatross,
this is shuttle 2.” Tim announced into the radio.

“Go ahead
shuttle 2, and make it brief we have a situation here.” The voice was near
panic.

“We are
moving the second asteroid to be towed back to base by the Reykjavik.” Tim
calmly stated.

“YOU’RE
WHAT?” the voice was clearly in disbelief.

“The orders
have been entered into the log.” Tim gave the operator a minute to get a grasp
on reality. “We are moving slowly and will get configured for towing.The flight plan is linked in the log, just
keep everyone calm and this will go smoothly.”

“Does the
Reykjavik know about this?” the junior officer really didn’t know what to do.

“They will
when you tell them.” Tim paused just to make the poor girl sweat a bit. “All of
the orders are linked in the log.” He was being reassuring now “Forward the
flight plan and the order, and let both crews know quickly to minimize the
panic.The Admiral’s full orders are
attached in the log.”

“Acknowledged.”
The officer regrouped herself “We will get that forwarded and the message disseminated.”

“Very well,
we will see you in 30 minutes.Shuttle 2
out.”He breathed a sigh of relief as he
unlocked himself from the console and tumbled toward Sam.“Ok Sam, let’s get you out of that suit.”

“You’re
going to have to help me get clean too.” She smiled at him.

“I wouldn’t
have it any other way.” He grabbed her and kissed her lightly on the nose.

Shuttle 2
slowly departed docking bay 5.With all
of the commotion on the station, very few people took notice or even
cared.The shuttle looped around the
station in a slow, lazy arc and headed toward the newly arrived block of “who
knows what” and accelerated toward it.The probe that was still attached to the asteroid activated and started
moving around to a pulling position.

The slow
dance of two small craft docking in the vastness of space can be
breathtaking.For all of the strength
built in to space faring vessels, they are incredibly fragile when the velocity
and energy levels involved are considered.

The shuttle
gently pulled next to the probe and came to a relative stop.

“Go for it,”
Tim told Sam “Get that probe refueled!”

Sam launched
herself off the shuttle with the fueling hoses in hand.She hadn’t done this in a long time so she
was running the checklist like a rookie.She assumed the right stance and had the hoses in the right position,
sweated the entire transition and even relieved herself along the way.Her contact with the probe was nearly
perfect, the connection of the fueling lines was textbook.

“Fill ‘er
up!” Sam announced.

“Topping off
with premium.” Tim played back.

“How long do
you think it will take for anyone to notice what we are doing out here?” Sam
pondered as she looked toward the station.

“Probably
not until we are connecting the cables to the Reykjavik.” They both laughed.Previous

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The
Reykjavik slowly approached the station while rotating around to point back
toward Earth and to align the docking arms.Albatross was not quite stabilized yet but the process was working.Unfortunately stabilizing the station for
docking and finishing the cargo transfer was consuming a lot of fuel, although
the time saved to complete the resupply would be well worth it in the long run.

Transports
buzzed around the station collecting cargo containers and searching for
survivors or at least bodies.

The large
ship slowly maneuvered into position along side the crippled station.The station had a slight wobble due to the
imbalance caused by a missing section of one of the rings, but it wasn’t too
bad. The ship extended her docking arms and slowly moved them in between the
rings toward the docking ports on the main hull of the station.
Station personnel watched the operation from every viewport that could see it
and monitored very closely on their computer consoles from the cameras
available.The ship had personnel
watching from every possible place including several people in space suits
standing on the hull outside.Each
docking arm had a couple of people standing at the end of the fixes section of
the docking arms and another pair at the end of the telescoping section.Transport craft were stationed at critical
observation positions between the ship and the station.Nobody was taking any chances and all
operations were going slowly.

The two
craft slowly intermeshed with the docking arms of the supply ship moving
between the rotating rings of the station.Personnel on both vessels tried to behave as if this was a routine
operation but there wasn’t a single person that actually believed it.As the docking arms approached the docking
ports the observing operators waved hand signals to each other indicating their
observations of the approach.Communications channels between the two craft were saturated almost to
the point of being unusable so hand signals between the crew members was the
best method.

The docking
arms finally latched to their corresponding ports.The crew of both vessels breathed a
collective sigh of relief as resupply operations finally resumed.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

“Shuttle 2
is docking now.” Kim looked across the compartment “And they have our wayward
captains.”

“How are
they?” Gwen didn’t look up and was trying to keep calm.

“They’re
both unconscious, and apparently are pretty beat up.” Kim looked back down to
her console “I have a medical team waiting for them.”

“Good.”Gwen looked up for a moment “How many are
still missing?”

“We only
have two unaccounted for.” Kim quickly checked another list “The bad part is we
have 6 dead.”

“That’s not
bad considering we were hit by a large missile.How much of the ring is gone?”

“The spokes
look to be undamaged but the section between them is completely destroyed.”

“Lab 4,
Bridge.” The intercom lit up.

“Go ahead
bridge.” Kim switched the hologram to show the station in its current damaged
form.

“We have a
possible solution to stabilizing the station and we want you to run some
numbers for us.” Commander Johnson was a bit anxious “We really need to get the
Reykjavik docked to finish the resupply.”

“Send us the
data.” Kim cleared her console for some new calculations “We’ll get right on
it.”

“How long
before we can get the transports back outside?”

“They are
being refueled and the new crews are briefing now.” Kim quickly sent him the
schedule and the assignments “I’m sending the schedule now.The first transport will launch in 20
minutes.”

“Very good.”
Commander Johnson hesitated for a minute “How long before the shuttle can
launch again?”

“The crew is
assisting the medical team move the victims to sick bay.”She looked at the progress report “And then
the crew needs at least 4 hours rest before they launch again.”

“That
works.Let us know when you have your
assessment of our solution.The
Reykjavik will be in position in less than an hour.”

“Will do
Bridge.Lab 4 out.”

Gwen looked
across the compartment “He really doesn’t want to complete the resupply by
transport, does he?”

“No.” Kim
looked back “Neither do I, and you shouldn’t either.”

“I
don’t.”Gwen looked back to her console
“I’m plotting the tow plan to hook up that other asteroid for towing by the
Reykjavik.Well take it back to base
where we will have better facilities to deal with it.”

“What do you
mean ‘we’?” Kim sounded suspicious.

“You’re
coming with us.” Gwen kept working on her console “We need your help and your
knowledge with this.”

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The
Reykjavik looped around and headed back toward Albatross station.The station itself was shaking with an odd
wobble caused by the missing ring section as the thrusters fought to stabilize
it.Shuttle 2 lead the train of craft
from the errant asteroids prior location toward the station.Every ship was actively searching for
survivors in the path left by the activated missile and the crippled station.The ships fanned out to form a search grid
for maximum coverage of the area.This
was a normal procedure that all of the pilots and commanders involved needed
very little coordination to make it happen.It was very good that coordination from the station because the station
personnel were completely occupied with stabilizing the station and locating
those that were missing within it.

“Shuttle 2,
this is Reykjavik.” Commander Dunst wanted to synchronize with the other ships.

“Go ahead
Reykjavik.” Tim was slowing the shuttle to make it easier for all of the
observers to scan the area.

“We will not
be able to dock with the station unless they can stabilize it.” The commander
sounded worried “And our schedule is getting tight.”

“That much
is obvious.” Tim sounded confident “We’ll get a schedule figured out for the
transports to handle the remaining cargo.The real problem is the fuel and oxidizer.”

“We don’t
have to fully dock to hook up the hoses.” He was not confident “It is very
risky but I think we can get it done.”

“Very well.”
Tim was maneuvering the shuttle around toward one of the survivors “We’re going
to finish the sweep and dock ourselves.We’ll contact you when we are ready for the next phase.”

“Alright, we’ll
discuss it then.Reykjavik out.”

“Ok Sam.”
Tim rolled the shuttle over to give her a better view and a shorter distance to
travel “Get you lasso ready, we’re coming up on a survivor.”

Monday, April 7, 2014

Captain
Calhoun looked up from his workstation out toward the incoming asteroid.That was the moment he realized where it was
going to impact the station: The very conference room he was sitting in.That impact was going to be very, very soon.

“Captain,”
Captain Calhoun was remarkably calm “The universe is about to go pear shaped on
us.”

Captain
Grind looked up just in time to see the asteroid impact the station directly
below their feet.

The icy
missile impacted the station on the outer edge of the forward spinning ring,
almost perfectly centered on the conference room the two captains were settled
in.The station was moving away from the
path but didn’t move fast enough.The
impact caused a yaw to the station making it spin away from the trajectory of
the asteroid and saved the second, larger ring while devastating the section of
the first ring.This section was mostly
conference rooms and storage that were currently unoccupied except for the one
where the captains were located.

The segment
between the spokes disintegrated in a cloud of debris.Chunks of hull and various supplies plumed
around as the station rotated out of the path of the asteroid accelerating
along its undetermined path.The station
held together but the people on board were jolted around and beat up inside.

The asteroid
continued to accelerate toward the center of the solar system as if nothing was
in its way leaving a trail of ice and station debris.

“Sam!” Tim shouted into the radio “Who are we
looking for?”

“I’ve got
four people in space suits drifting away from that mess.” She made a quick scan
without the camera “When do we get the last of the miners on board?”

“The last
one just entered the airlock.” Tim tried to calm down “So hang on, we are
headed for the station.”

“I’m
strapped down.” Sam wanted to be reassuring “So just hit it and I’ll be with
you!”

“Albatross
Station this is Shuttle 2.” Tim announced on the radio “We have picked up 7 miners,
we are currently tracking 4 suits in the station debris field and we are
heading in.Have we missed anyone?”

Commander
Johnson replied to the shuttle “Shuttle 2, Albatross station.” He was rattled
and nervous, but he projected the command confidence “We are working to
stabilize the station so be warned we may be a bit unpredictable.We show four people confirmed outside of the
station and 10 un-accounted for at this time.”

“Acknowledged,
Albatross.” Tim set the cameras to scan the affected area “We will keep our
eyes open for anyone floating around.”

“Shuttle 2,
be advised.” Commander Johnson was a bit hesitant “Captain Calhoun and Captain
Grind were in the compartment that was hit.”

“Acknowledged,
Albatross.” Tim had to pause a minute “We will keep that in mind as we sweep for
survivors.”

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Sam stood at
the edge of the aft end of the shuttle hull.Her magnetic boots were firmly locked to clean pads on the hull.She had two safety lines connected:a long one attached at the airlock and a
shorter one secured to a structural beam a couple of meters behind her.She looked out over the glow of the thrusters
slowing the ship and its cargo to gaze toward the station and the missile
headed straight for it.She positioned
the camera to zoom in on the region between the station and the Reykjavik.

“That’s good
to hear.” Tim idly responded since he was quite busy with the deceleration
procedure “How long do you expect before impact?”

“No more
than 5 minutes.” She shifted the camera back to the station “It is only going
to hit the rings, the main body is safe for now.”

“There are
more people in the rings than the main body most of the time.” Tim was clearly
only partially thinking about that.

“I am aware
of that,” Sam sounded a bit annoyed “I expect the captain has figured that out
too.”

“I’m sure he
has.”

“How long
until we can cut loose from this thing?” Sam wanted to get into the rescue
effort as soon as they could.

“We just
did.” Tim was relieved in one sense but tense in another “Watch for the cables
as I reel them in and get us spun around.” He paused for a moment “You know we have to
rescue the miners first, right?”

“Yes, I
know.” Sam was worried about the station “So let’s go get them while I record
the station.”

“I’m going
to need your help in finding those people.” Tim insisted.

“Then let me
know when we get close and I’ll help out.” She was annoyed.

“Ok.” Tim
went back to pilot mode “We’re coming around so hang on.”

“Will do.”
Sam looked around and adjusted as the ship changed attitude.

The shuttle
swung around toward the ice cloud left by the asteroid as the tow cables were
retracted.Beacon strobes signaled in
front of the shuttle as the craft carefully navigated through the debris.

“Alright
people,” Commander Johnson announced in his best command voice “We are about to
be hit by a very large object.” He scanned the compartment “That means we need
to be ready for every possible problem that it could cause.We don’t know exactly where we are going to
be hit, or how big that impact will be, so we need everyone on this station
ready for the worst.Check and double
check every airlock, line-lock, safety bulkhead, space suit, and anything else
you can think of.Keep your heads and
work the problem.”

The murmur
in the compartment settled into a controlled cadence of status requests and
acknowledgements, control checks and responses, checklist verifications and
clarifications.It was the finely tuned
controlled chaos the space corps was known for.

“Bridge,
this is the captain.” The intercom announced.

“Go ahead,
captain.” Commander Johnson switched his attention.

“I would
like the latest feed from our intrepid travelers on Shuttle 2.” The captain
knew the stress the commander was under.

“Feeding
that through to you now, captain.” The commander quickly entered the commands
to feed the information to the captain. “Is there anything you would like to
request for your meals?I want to get
everything staged up.”

“Now that
you mention it,” the captain responded lightly “We would like the lobster for
the next meal with a light chardonnay and the Fillet Mignon with a hearty
zinfandel after that.”

“Acknowledged,”
the commander confirmed “E-Rats meals 5 and 6 are on their way.” He held back a
laugh.

“Very well,
commander.” The captain went back to business “Get every compartment supplied
and the station sealed up.We have 20
minutes at most.That thing is still
accelerating, so get this station ready for ‘God knows what’.”

“Aye, Sir!”
the commander sounded confident but was shaking in his suit.

Friday, April 4, 2014

The docking
clamps connecting the Reykjavik’s docking arms to the station released.The arms started to retract.Fuel and oxidizer lines released and sprayed
a small amount of their precious fluids out in to space.The thrusters on the Reykjavik fired off to
full thrust directly away from the station.The station’s thrusters fired to push directly away from the ship.The two vessels slowly started to drift
apart.

Cargo
containers drifted out of both the station and the docking arms as they
retracted.The empty cargo containers in
the forward arm were already heading for the ship and the direction of the
conveyors on the aft arm were reversed, but emergency retraction of the arms
was faster than the conveyors so some of the containers would be lost.This is a calculated loss for serious
situations.

The ship had
substantially lower mass and much more thrust available so it was accelerating
away from the station much faster than the station could move.

Observers on
both vessels watched as the arms disengaged from the gaps between the rotating
sections of the station.Everyone
watched the critical distances between the moving objects for the slightest
movement toward each other.This wasn’t
a routine docking operation, it was an emergency separation to move out of the
way of a dangerous object accelerating in their path and the possibility of
error was high.

The asteroid
continued to accelerate toward the station, shedding ice, miners and transports
along the way.The ice formed a cloud
around the path in its wake and the glow from the back end lit the cloud up
like a nebulae.It was a breathtaking
sight for anyone not in immediate danger from an uncontrolled missile of
unknown origin.Unfortunately the miners
and the transport pilots did not have the luxury of being able to appreciate
this magnificent sight, they were too busy trying to stay alive and find each
other.The cloud was thick with mostly
fine particles, so there wasn’t a collision hazard as much as there was almost
no visibility.Beacons and radio
contacts were all they had to go by.

The lights
from the transport craft and the space suit emergency beacons added to the
nebulae look of the ice cloud.

Tim and Sam
watched the spectacle on their monitors.The shuttle was pointed away from the station in braking configuration
to slow down their alien cargo.It was
very clear the asteroid was headed straight for the station and there was no
way the station would get out of the way in time.

Tim looked
to Sam “Get out there and record this.” He was serious.

“We’ve got 3
cameras on it already.” She was hesitant.

“But you’ll
be faster with a handheld camera, and we don’t know what is going to happen.”
He looked straight into her eyes. “Or who we’re going to have to find.”

Sam gulped
and launched herself toward the airlock.She understood the urgency and was, for once, actually thankful they
were already suited up.

“And hang on
while you are out there.” Tim was clearly concerned “It is likely to get bumpy from
here in.”

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Captain
Calhoun and Captain Grind were relaxing on either side of the conference table,
looking out of the viewport toward the front of the station observing
operations on the asteroid while sipping some scotch from Captain Calhoun’s
private selection.The chit chat was
light as the two captains let off some steam and had a few laughs with their
feet kicked up on the table.This was a
luxury neither man got very often due to the responsibilities of command.

They both
saw the cloud of ice erupt from the far end of the asteroid.

“What the
hell was that?” Captain Grind was startled.
“Not good.” Captain Calhoun sat up in his chair and looked around toward the
information console on the rear wall.

The klaxons
and emergency lights kicked in.

“Oh Shit!”
Captain Calhoun jumped up and bounded to the space suit locker followed very
closely by Captain Grind.

The two
quickly donned their suits, activated their enviro-packs and ran through the
safety checks on each other’s suits with quiet, smooth precision.These two were so incredibly familiar with
this procedure they could do it in their sleep and not miss a step.In this case they were far from asleep since
they both saw the threat, but that didn’t hinder them in the least as they were
absolute professionals.

“Alright
Captain,” Captain Grind spoke up “What next?”

“We can’t
risk moving through the station right now.” Captain Calhoun moved to the
conference table. “So this compartment just became a command deck.” He pressed
a button and two command consoles opened up on the conference table.

“Has my ship
undocked yet?” Captain Grind moved to one of the consoles and strapped into the
chair.

“That would
have been the second step after hitting the panic button.” Captain Calhoun
strapped down into the chair at the other console. “So I expect you will be our
guest for a while.”

The two
captains frantically started checking status of their respective commands and
the projected trajectories of all of the vessels in motion.

“This isn’t
looking good.” Captain Grind looked up “I think my ship will get out of the way
but I’m not sure about this station.”

“That is
what I am afraid of.” Captain Calhoun didn’t bother looking up, he just kept watching
status reports from every department.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Transport 2
slowed to a relative stop over the contact pad on the asteroid.The cargo door opened and the maintenance bot
drifted out.

“Bot is away
Albatross.” The pilot announced to the station.

“Acknowledged,
Transport 2.” Commander Dickerson responded. “We’ll take it from here.Move to your assigned observation position
and link up.”

“Aye, Aye,
Albatross.” The pilot moved the transport to a higher altitude and off center
to afford a better camera angle.

The bot
descended toward the contact pad.A
grappling arm extended in the middle and three landing legs stretched out from
the sides as it rotated around.It
slowed its approach as it neared the target.The grappling arm grabbed to the mount point as the little craft rotated
to place the landing legs outside the contact pads and located between them as
it touched down.

“Bot is
down.” Kim looked over to Gwen “Ready for the first set of tests.”

She
concentrated as the readings were displayed on the console for a few moments.
“Kim, come take a look at this.”

Kim left her
console and floated across the compartment and stopped behind Gwen.“What have you got?”

“Look at
these readings.” Gwen pointed to a couple of pairs. “Voltage and frequency appears
to be going up as impedance goes down across these sets of pads.”

“It is not
consistent across all of those pairs.” Kim pointed to one set “This one seems
to have the greatest change.What
impedance range did you use?”

“I started
at a gig ohm and brought it down to a mega ohm.” Gwen had the display order by
the amount of change and display the correspondence values.

“Alright,
let’s run this pair again and slowly run it down to 100 kilo ohms, and watch
out for dangerous voltages.” Kim gestured down the list that showed no change.
“And then check this set again.” She headed back across the compartment.

“Alright my
little friend,” Gwen started programming in the test process “Let’s see what
you are up to.”

Kim strapped back down in front of her console
and called up the video feed from the observing transport.

“Albatross
station, Shuttle 2.” Sam’s voice sounded slightly nervous.

“Go ahead
Shuttle 2.What have you got?” Kim was
focusing on the bot, looking for anomalies.

“This end of
your asteroid is starting to glow.” Sam was definitely concerned.

“Did you
just say it is glowing?” Kim was startled.Gwen looked across the compartment.

“Yes I
did.Here is the video feed.”

Kim quickly
punched up the feed to see the slightly blue tinted glow emanating from the end
of the object.It was slowly growing in
intensity.“Gwen where are you in your
measurements?”

“Ok, knock
it down another 100 mega ohms and re check the other pads.”Kim set the screen to show both video feeds.

The ice on
the far end of the asteroid erupted in a cloud blasting away and out from the
body.

“Did you see
that?” Sam shouted through the radio.

“Albatross,
that thing is moving!” The transport pilot was near panic.

Kim looked
up and remembered the asteroid was lengthwise pointed directly at the station.
“Gwen…” Kim was very nervous now.

Gwen cut her
off by punching the panic button for the station.The klaxons and emergency lights lit up.“Suit up Kimmie!And DO IT NOW!” Gwen shouted and then turned
to the radio “Reykjavik, Emergency Undock!Unlock and blast clear of the station.Code Blue 5.This is not a
drill.”She paused “Repeat.Emergency Undock!Unlock and blast clear of the station.Code Blue 5.This is not a drill.”

Gwen quickly
punched the command for the bot to disconnect then unstrapped and launched herself
toward her space suit.